How Swedish dogs helped cross-border Kim Wall investigationDanish artist-inventor Peter Madsen was charged on Tuesday with murdering Kim Wall on board his submarine. The policeman running the Swedish side of the investigation explains the crucial role of his officers – and their dogs.
Peter Madsen's explanation of what happened onboard the submarine Nautilus is crumbling.
Just over a week ago, more remains are found that, according to Danish police, disprove Madsen's version of how the Swedish journalist Kim Wall died.
The proof could be secured after Swedish, specially trained criminal search dogs assisted the Danish police in the search.
Dog hander Johan Esbjörnsson describes the assignment as unusual in several ways.
"It was very special to work at sea. Even the case as such. It felt good to be able to contribute."
Ben is seven years old and the black-brown Springer Spaniel has been waiting in the car while Johan Esbjörnsson showed around the farm.
- He's amazing. He is always happy to work.
Johan Esbjörnsson has worked as a police officer for 40 years, 28 of them as a dog handler. Over the last five years, he and Ben have been a team. Just this windy day, the team is busy preparing for a planned search the following week. And with training Ben in tracking.
When a person dies, the process of decay begins almost immediately. Within 30 minutes, the body has begun to break down, a process that starts in the stomach. During the trash, the cadaver is formed, a smelly fluid that leaves the body.
It's the fluid the dogs are tracking.
The Swedish criminals seek dogs also have a special knowledge: they are trained to search in water.
Already the week after Kim Wall's disappearance, Danish police contact their colleagues in Sweden. The Copenhagen police have confirmed that it is assumed that Kim Wall is dead and looking for a body. Most likely, the body is in the water and now the Swedish police are advised to assist with their dogs, which, unlike the Danish criminals, are trained to search for dead people in water.
The dog handler Lars-Göran Eriksson and the labrador Ace from Stockholm are one of the two teams who first go to Denmark, the first time they are going to search for a dead person at sea.
Searching at sea is basically no different to searching on land: what the dog is looking for is a cadaver, a smelly fluid that leaves the body - and the interaction between dog and driver is crucial.
The searches for Kim Wall were focused on Kögebukten
The Swedish dogs are certainly trained to seek water, but they are used to searching for smaller lakes.
The gases that leave a dead body should be transported through water. And in the water there are several layers, some of which do not let go through the gas. And then the gas moves with the currents, until it for some reason moves on to the surface. It can be a good bit, it is due to ebb and river and cold and other factors.
"If we are looking for a lake in the Stockholm area, it's a lake of maybe 400 times 1,000 meters, so we can not miss that much, the gas goes straight and the find is often straight down," says Lars-Göran Eriksson.
The search for Kim Wall is based on the supposed route the submarine traveled during the night when the Swedish journalist disappeared. The focus is on Kögebukten, where Madsen's submarine also dropped.
The work is carried out under difficult conditions.
- We had no reference points except the digital chart. In some days it was also very high lake. We had no previous experience of it, "says Lars-Göran Eriksson.
When searching at sea and on land, dogs are looking for the same odour. What is different between the two search environments is working conditions, conditions that place extremely high demands on the dog's character.
"It's also possible if the dog can go on a boat, we have had dogs who can not handle it. It must also be a dog that is calm and stable."
Complicated communication
Another aspect of the work that is complicated by sea is the communication between the dog and the handler. In most cases, out in terrain or in an apartment, the dog marks a bargain by basically laying the nose in the spot where it marks a bargain. For natural reasons, it's not possible when you're out at sea.
"Most dogs are barking. My dog hurts more and almost wants to jump in. Then you know he found something, says Lars-Göran Eriksson.
As a last and definitive piece, divers have the Danish Armed Forces gone down and searched where the dogs are marked.
On Saturday, October 7, the Danish police confirm that new discoveries were linked to Kim Wall. Her head and legs have been found together with clothes and a knife.
The findings have been made after the Swedish special search dogs have selected at certain locations in Kögebukten.
- It's Kim Wall's head that's found. The head was in a bag, and the bag also contained metal pieces, Jens Möller, chief of the murder unit at the Copenhagen Police, told a press meeting in connection with the finding.
The specific findings made in Kögebukten, with the help of the Swedish dogs Ben and Ace, are seen as particularly important, especially when it comes to determining the cause of death.
Until the last finds of Kim Wall's remains, Peter Madsen has responded to the police's questions during interrogation. The only defense attorney, Betina Hald Engmark, Madsen has been determined to collaborate and during arrest talks he has published the text about himself, his projects and his version of the trip that ended with Kim Wall's death.
But after the latest finds in Kögebukten, Peter Madsen is silent. Suddenly he no longer wants to talk to the police or answer questions.
Madsen is now undergoing a legal psychiatric investigation, which is expected to be ready towards New Year. Everything indicates that in the near future he will be prosecuted for killing and killing Kim Wall.
When the rain begins to fall over the gym outside Lund on the windy day in October, it has been a few weeks since Johan Esbjörnsson and Ben came back from the searches in Kögebukten. In the garage, the team's boats, those used in Denmark, are on trailers.
Now it's back everyday, and that means training.
After just a few minutes, Ben has found what he seeks: with one's mind he is lying on the ground, quite still, with the nose pointing at one point.
Johan Esbjörnsson marks the finding with a bright colored marker and had it been sharp - at a place where a suspected sexual offense was committed, it had now been time for the police's technicians to accept and secure the evidence.
As a dog handler in Polisregion South, Johan Esbjörnsson usually works in civilian clothes, it becomes easier and many people appreciate low profile, he says.
When the other colleagues from the dog training center outside Lund are looking for drugs, weapons or banknotes, Johan and Ben are looking for dead people. People who may have been subjected to a serious violent crime. It places high demands on how they occur.
https://www.expressen.se/kvallsposten/sa-loste-polishundar-bevisen-mot-madsen/
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